Case in Point:Complete Case Interview Preparation - 5th edition
by Marc P. Cosentino
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Book Summary Information
Author: Marc P. CosentinoEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2007-07-20
ISBN: 0971015848
Number of pages: 186
Publisher: Burgee Press
Book Reviews of Case in Point:Complete Case Interview Preparation - 5th edition
Book Review: Very helpful in landing a consulting job
Summary: 5 Stars
Case in Point is a must read for people who are serious about getting a consulting job.
Having said that, this book will not help you get a consulting job unless:
(a) You are already interested in business; and
(b) Have good common sense; and
(c) Are comfortable with quantitative questioning; and
(d) Have good interviewing skills; and
(e) have an impressive enough CV to get an interview.
The above does not apply if you are one of those exceptional people who will probably receive offers everywhere you go (in which case the book may still be useful nonetheless).
After reading this book I interviewed with both Bain and McKinsey (for AC and BA positions) as well as with a number of investment banks. Ultimately I received a couple of offers at investment banks, was knocked out in the second round at Bain and received an offer from McKinsey.
Surprisingly the concepts I learnt in the book helped me with my IB interviews (at places such as Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley) as once they establish the basics (ie you can do DCF and understand undergraduate finance 101) they quickly move to strategy-type questioning where people familiar with consulting frameworks have a massive advantage.
Advantages of the Book
The advantage of this book is that it gives you a number of frameworks which can be adapted to answer pure strategy questions. I am aware of no other books that give you such detailed frameworks. The book then gives you a large number of practice questions (most of them are `allegedly' based on real interviews), shows the implementation of those frameworks in candidate answers and then critiques those answers.
To give you an example of how the book worked well for me - take my Bain interview Rnd 1 - the question was Toys R Us is thinking of putting in Vet surgeries in its stores - is it a good idea or not? What should they be thinking about? I was able to draw on the Case in Point problem of a retail store looking at putting a banking outlet in its store to guide my answer. If you immediately know that the things you should be looking at are entering a new market frameworks as well as synergy analysis and the potential for cannibalisation of store space you can arrive at an answer quickly that makes you look more insightful than the average.
In one of my McK round 1 interviews I was actually told that I had hit every single point on the answer guide. Not bad considering that I hadn't thought of anything original.
Disadvantages
One disadvantage of this book are that you can become so proficient with the frameworks that you can start using a framework that the interviewer wasn't wanting. Perhaps this was my overconfidence!
To give you an example in Bain Rnd 2 I was asked about a private equity company that had bought a company and wanted to "grow the business". I immediately started using a "grow the business" framework - ie revenue enhancement model, when it actually turned out that the interviewer wanted a cut cost to boost profitability model that focussed on holding period and exit strategy.
Another disadvantage is that you never are allowed enough time to write down your proposed framework to the answer before you are required to start answering the case so you better have it all worked out in your head. A follow on problem of this is that your answer can seem "creative but unstructured". I personally found that Bain obsessed about structure but McK cared more about creativity.
Some of the frameworks also need improving as they are too esoteric (especially at an entry level). The profit equation for example that Cosentino uses in the 5th edition is (I believe) so esoteric that if I had written it down I would have been laughed at. The one he advocates in the 4th edition is superior.
The pricing section is very insightful (and interesting) but did not help me much with questions about corporate valuation (ie "we have an exploding offer in 20 minutes and need to decide whether we sell the factory for $5 million or not") where I had to fall back on what I had learned about accounting and finance in my undergraduate degree. This question arose in both Bain and McKinsey cases.
Another thing that puzzled me is whether this book is targeted at MBA level entrants or undergraduates.
Conclusion
Overall the book is excellent and if married with the online questions (which you have to buy separately) can enhance case-interviewing immeasurably. I know friends of mine who I would consider smarter than me that bombed out spectacularly because they hadn't prepared.
If you want to prepare then this is the gold standard. Successful preparation with this book will take at least 20+ hours.
It won't however get you a job unless you bring the qualities to the table that the firms are after - eg leadership, presence, good grades and business acumen.
Summary of Case in Point:Complete Case Interview Preparation - 5th edition
Cosentino demystifies the consulting case interview. He takes you inside a typical interview by exploring the various types of case questions and he shares with you a system that will help you answer today's most sophisticated case questions.Consulting Books
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